The Third Time’s the Charm! Fourth (Third) Annual Mom and Me Trip--Updated twice on 10/21--now COMPLETE - Page 26 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
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There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
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If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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It sounds like you had a great time at the party! I have never noticed the scary guy with the lantern before but you better believe I'm going to be on the look out in a couple of weeks. I have the theme music too and I'll play it at work sometimes. You should see the looks I get when Clara does her thing! It always makes me smile.
I FINALLY was able to catch up on your trip report and I amd LOVING it! I love your pics of the MNSSHP. I'm so sad that I wasn't able to go and experience it. I am planning on going next year to coincide with the Food & Wine Festival! Can't wait to read more!
Fantastic Trip Report, Sharon!!! And I adore your hat!!
Halloween has never been my favorite holiday, but seeing your photos of MNSSHP sure does make me want to celebrate at WDW!!
And MNSSHP was just made for your DM! You didn't catch her stealing candy from small children, did you?
She didn't steal from any little kids, but now that I think about it, I did have to leave my bag with her when I went on BTMRR. And my bag seemed lighter after that.
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Originally Posted by Jillybean
And Charlie Brown and his rock! That made me laugh so hard! Mary Devall's nursery was actually decorated with a Peanuts theme - - my mom drew the characters on the walls - - so we love us some Charlie Brown in our family.
Jill, I seriously think we are sisters.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jillybean
Your interaction with Jane was hilarious! Jane was supposed to be our last stop of the night, but the rest of our gang just couldn't take another stop! Now I really hate that I missed her becuase I loved her line of why she stayed in Africa. Who knew such a proper girl had such a wicked sense of humor!
She was fun. DM really liked our interaction and talked about it for a few days.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jillybean
And your clucking . . . had me in stitches! And you were totally sober - - unless you had a little something something under your Minnie hat!
I shudder to think what I'd do all liquored up.
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Originally Posted by MattUGA
Sharon, great stuff! Did you get to see the Cadaver Dans? I saw the creepy guy near the Ferryboat as well. He was totally creepy!
I missed the Cadaver Dans this year. They're always fun.
Quote:
Originally Posted by travismom
Fantastic Trip Report, Sharon!!! And I adore your hat!!
Halloween has never been my favorite holiday, but seeing your photos of MNSSHP sure does make me want to celebrate at WDW!!
MNSSHP is my favorite party but the strange thing is I'm not really too big on Halloween. I guess I'm just in it for the candy.
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Mickey's so happy to see me back, he can barely contain himself!
Day Four – Monday, September 29 Why Am I So Afraid of the Yeti?
Mable’s Sweet Tip: If you steal someone’s candy, you must replace it with some of your own (that you don’t like).
I was up before the wakeup call again this morning. I was waiting for it before I got in the shower so I could grab it without waking DM. When I got out of the shower, DM was awake and told me she wouldn’t be too far behind me.
As I arrived at the bus stop, I saw that a bus was just leaving. I figured it was just my luck that it was an AK bus and I’d have a wait, but keeping with the theme of the trip, an AK bus arrived within 5 minutes.
There were only a few people on the bus, and we arrived at the park at about 8:15. I headed right for EE. Even though the crowds were very light, I still grabbed a FP. The standby was only 5 minutes, but that’s really all it took to walk straight through the queue and onto a train.
I didn’t know this at the time, but the Yeti wasn’t working (something about his arm, or so I’ve heard). Anyway, when the Yeti isn’t working, they put a strobe light on him and the flashing makes it seem like he’s moving (rather than just a big statue ). I’ve heard this and thought it was pretty lame, and I’d even seen it once or twice before.
Anyway, on that first ride through, I was quite near the front, but not in the front row. When we got into the room with the Yeti, I couldn’t see him at all! I was saying to myself, “Where is he? Where is he? Where is… AAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!” It was actually pretty scary the way they were doing it this time. It would be pretty dark in there for a while, and then the light would come on, but by the time you could see the Yeti he was right on top of you! Every time I went through that morning it had the same effect on me. “Where is he? Where is he? Where is… AAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!”
I’m not sure if they’ve changed the way they do the strobe effect what, but it seemed a lot better than any other time I’ve had the strobe effect.
I was able to ride 2 more times in the standby line, waiting maybe 5 minutes at the most. Once I decided to wait for the front row and there was a group of 3 ahead of me for the front row. They asked me if I wanted to join them and I agreed. The little girl said she was no way riding in the very front row, so her DF and I took the front while she and her DM were in the second row. They were a lot of fun to ride with.
My FP was finally ripe after 3 times through the standby, so I walked right on (the standby line was maybe 10 minutes by then). I was paired with a mom and her two little girls. I sat with the older girl who looked about 6 or 7. She seemed kind of nervous, so I tried to make her feel better (I told her I might scream my head off and she said she would too ).
I decided not to get another FP because I was sure DM would be getting to the park soon. I also decided that I was hungry and needed breakfast. I was heading to Africa when I got a call from DM that she was entering the park. I told her to meet me near the safari. When she found me, I’d already gotten something to eat (apple slices and OJ). We got FPs for the safari. DM didn’t want breakfast, so we sat and people watched while I ate.
After breakfast (and I’m disappointed that the caramel dipping sauce is half the size it used to be and you run out of it long before you run out of apples ) we decided to walk through the PFET.
The weather was splendid, so I was confident there would be animals in sight.
We stopped and watched the meerkats for a while.
Then we continued on to one of my favorites, gorillas.
Supermodel
It just seemed like that gorilla was posing for the cameras. A few other people said the same thing.
Over on the other side, there were a pair of gorillas that seemed to be getting on each others’ nerves. They would glare at each other and then one would beat his chest and sort of rush up to the other one. Then reverse and repeat. I actually thought they might start fighting. You can’t really tell what was going on from the pics I got, but it was pretty interesting.
We’d taken so long going through PFET that our KS FPs were ripe, so that’s what we did next. We had a really enthusiastic CM on this, which always makes it more fun. When we were about to take off, he asked us if we were looking forward to seeing any animals. I immediately called out giraffes and then… silence. <insert cricket-chirping sound here> Then he goes “Just giraffes? Nobody else wants to see anything?”
We saw a lot of animals (because the weather was perfect – warm and comfortable). I didn’t take too many photos.
Since I’d ordered giraffes they were nice enough to be sitting in the middle of the savannah.
I asked DM what else she wanted to do and she didn’t really want to do anything (which is a bit unusual, since AK is one of her favorite parks). I wanted to see the Nemo show, but the next one wasn’t for almost two hours, so we decided to leave.
This had nothing to do with us being hungry and wanting to return to the F&WF. Really.
On the way out, DM got a frozen banana.
Surprisingly, I didn’t feel like anything sweet. So I got popcorn.
We did a bit of shopping on the way out, and when we arrived at the bus stop, there was a bit of a line. I figured that meant a bus would be coming soon, but this is where our transportation luck failed us. We had a long wait (honestly it was only 15 minutes, but I was cranky which had nothing to do with the fact that I wanted to go to the F&WF).
When a bus arrived at our stop, we weren’t sure if it was ours…
Someone up front asked if the bus was going to the Epcot resorts, and the bus driver (quite rudely) said it was. He never changed his sign from “A Walk in the Park,” so we stopped at all 5 resorts (BWI is last, which is the only negative about staying there IMO) and not one person got on. I think he just wanted to take an unauthorized coffee break. I think that particular CM needs a brush-up lesson in magic making.
I wanted to bring the packages up to our room, so I headed up while DM waited in the courtyard. The mousekeeper was in the room (for the third day in a row!). Today we had a new mousekeeper, and I made sure she knew the mousekeeping envelope was for her. I couldn’t resist stepping out onto the balcony for a second, and DM captured it on film.
I was thirsty, so I grabbed our mugs and headed down. I got a drink and then we sat down to enjoy it. We were rudely interrupted by the arrival of the Epcot boat. We decided to boat over instead of walking (we never did get a chance to walk to Epcot, because the boat was always there!).
Up Next: F&WF Round 3, a Mini PassPorter Meet and Mom Likes Me Best!
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Mickey's so happy to see me back, he can barely contain himself!
What a gorgeous morning at AK, how awesome to have great weather and low crowds. Glad you and DM ate light....left plenty of room in the belly for F&WF!
danielle
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~Shoot for the moon, if you miss, you will land among the stars~
Super update! Love all your animal pictures. Did they say anything on the safari about the new baby giraffe? I'm hoping to see him next week. I baby animals.
Thanks for reminding me that I need to make mousekeeping envelopes. I'll have to go look for an Eileen post for her link to envelopes.
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Oct '99: CSR ~ May '02: CR ~ Nov '04: SOG ~ May '06: SOG ~ Dec '07: Solo @ Pop ~ May '08: Pop w/friends ~ Oct '08: SOG ~ Dec '09: Pop w/LeAnn ~ Sept '10: Solo @ Pop ~ Spring '11: AKL ~ Jan '12: Pop for 1/2 Marathon ~ Sept '12: 1st trip for DL 1/2 Marathon? ~ Feb '13: Pop w/pals? ~ Mar '13: Tokyo Disney w/PP's?
What a wonderful up-date! Ur mom is to cute for words and loves going to Disney! That Rocks! I am hoping to turn my mom into ur mom when we go in decemebr! LOL